“I’m counting on it. The abductors targeted her for a reason. On top of that, she killed one wolf and can ID the other who attacked her. She’s as good as dead if we can’t protect her.”
Regina cocked her head to the side. “Shouldn’t we get her back to Magic Side? We have a safehouse, you know. We could prosecute her under pack law once this is over.”
I growled, and she averted her eyes. “In an ideal world, yes. But right now, we don’t have any clues to work from. We don’t know why the abductions are happening or where the rogue wolves have set up their base of operations—if they even have one. The best chance we have of tracking them down is capturing one and getting it to talk. So we stay here and wait for the she-wolf to come back.”
My second nodded. “You want to use the redhead as bait.”
The dark, empty highway stretched ahead of us. Somewhere down the road, a small-town girl was heading home, completely ignorant of the monsters lurking in every shadow.
Savannah was going to lead me to answers, one way or another.
I tightened my jaw. “I’m going to find out who’s behind these abductions and bring them down by whatever means necessary—even if I have to lure them with that woman.”
4
Savannah
I was pretty damn sure that Jaxson Laurent had brainwashed the sheriff. How, I didn’t know.
On our way home, I tried talking things over with Kep, but he was implausibly committed to the theory that it had been a wolf attack and that no abductors were involved. Worse, he wasn’t going to investigate.
“I understand things seem muddled, Savannah,” the sheriff explained, “so look at it this way—if you had actually run down someone on the road, that would be manslaughter. And jail time. So let’s not dig too deeply, eh? It’s better this way.”
I sat on my hands to make sure I didn’t strangle him. Kepler’s point of view made perfect sense, but I knew what I’d seen standing in the middle of the highway, and it wasn’t a furry dog. I needed the truth. I’d been assaulted and nearly abducted, and it could happen again.
Frustration near to boiling, I gave up trying to talk to Kep and replayed the events in my mind as we rumbled down the moonlit road. Some things I just couldn’t make sense of—the claws, the glowing eyes, and the man in the black truck. But I understood a few things.
I’d been attacked by a couple. They were probably behind the other abductions. And they had targeted me, specifically.
Moreover, I was willing to bet that they’d grabbed Madison Lee—the red-haired woman on TV—by accident. They’d been looking for me. The tattooed man had even said, “We can’t fuck this up again,” right before they jumped me.
I sucked in a deep breath. Who the hell were they, and why were they after me? I had to find out. That was priority one. Unfortunately, it seemed like Laurent was whitewashing things over. He’d already gotten to the sheriff.
Who was he? Bad news, that was who.
He certainly wasn’t from the Wisconsin DNR. I’d checked his plates—Illinois. So who did he work for, then? The FBI? CIA? The men in black?
My godmother, Alma, had always had crazy ideas about government spooks. Maybe her theories weren’t so kooky after all.
And what was it with his eyes? The attackers’ irises had turned crimson when they came after me. Laurent’s had gone honey gold a couple of times while we were talking. I’d never seen anything like it until tonight.
My heart raced. Was he in league with my attackers? Either covering things up or working with them?
Probably not.
With those muscles and powerful frame, Laurent could have taken me then and there if he’d wanted. Just the thought of that sent shivers down my spine. There was no chance Kepler would’ve put up a fight. The sheriff was two years away from retiring—at least, everyone hoped so.
Then what was Laurent’s game?
My stomach churned with the endless possibilities, and I was nauseated by the time we finally pulled up in front of my godmother’s house.
Our place was impossible to miss, even in the moonlight. The yard was decorated with all sorts of strange things. Pinwheels, chimes, too many hummingbird feeders. Sculptures with glass balls that didn’t quite qualify as art but didn’t really count as anything else. They were like flashing neon signs that screamed, We are weird here.
“This is you.” The sheriff rapped his knuckles on the wheel. “Are you going to be all right?”
With a sigh, I heaved my tired bones out of the cruiser. “Thanks, Kep. Alma will set me right.”
“I’m sure she will.” He closed the door and waited for me to go in.